adventures in parenting, playing and mending a little heart

Menu

Baby’s Progress

Finally I have the chance to blog about our second post surgery Cardiology follow up appointment, which we had last week. I had been working myself up into a nice little frenzy of anxiety prior to the appointment so was glad when the day finally came and we could get on with it and hear how hes doing. To our eyes, he was making excellent progress – he is steadily gaining weight, feeding much better and has a smile for anyone and everyone who catches his eye! My husband took this as a reason to be optimistic that all was well, but I felt I just couldn’t dare to be positive, just in case…

As usual the appointment started with baby boy being weighed and measured – all good there, following his lines on the charts as he should. Next we had the ECG , this was tricky last time, baby boy needs to stay still while 12 leads are attached to his chest and a reading taken over about a ten minute period. Thankfully he did beautifully this time, lying still on the bed, smiling at his mummy and daddy, quite heartbreaking to see. Finally we had the dreaded echo (an echocardiogram) – baby boy has had loads of these in his tiny life, and he HATES them. I don’t blame him really, lying outstretched while hes covered in cold gel and prodded with ultrasound equipment. Echos seem to take forever, its a very important part of his assessment, requiring many detailed images to give a picture of how his heart is functioning post op. This echo was marginally better than previous ones – I can see how it might become easier as he gets older and more distractable, but he still ended up screaming the house down by the end of this one which is pretty distressing to see. The more he cries, the harder it is to get a picture, so babies are sometimes sedated for this process but luckily that wasn’t necessary for us on this occasion. Poor, sweet baby fell asleep almost instantly in my arms as soon as the echo was over, he had exhausted himself with all that crying.

Our consultant then had a chat with us to talk through all their findings, and it was all positive, much to our great relief! They are happy with how hes recovering and now don’t want to see us for a whole 6 months!! Well, they phrase it all very carefully – rightly so, we understand that the long term future is unknown territory for anyone after this operation, but we both noted that the doctor used the ‘g’ word this time – ‘good’, which we have come to realise is praise indeed.

So I’m feeling pretty good myself after that appointment. I still worry – I think I always will, but I am starting to get glimpses of a future where life is not dominated by baby boys wonky heart. He really is a little miracle – I marvel at him all day, every day. What a lucky mummy I am to spend my days with such amazing boys!